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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

#34: PC vs. Console, Which is Better?

I
have been playing games for almost my entire life. Games are very
much a huge focus of mine, which is why I love to write about them.
One thing you learn when being a part of this sub-culture is that the
people who populate it tend to be very... tenaciously
fanatic
when comes to decisions they make. This causes gamers to debate a
lot. One of the major debates that have cropped up more often of late
than usual is whether PCs or dedicated gaming consoles are superior
to the other. There are points to be made for either side. This week,
I try to apply my analysis onto this debate and try to come up with a
satisfactory answer. For this analysis, I will look at several
factors and analyze them to see whether PCs or Consoles do better in
that category. Once that is all said and done, I will render my final
verdict. Since I am a console gamer who has only recently picked up
PC gaming, there is a possibility for biases, just a forewarning.

The first category we will look into is Initial Investment. On the
console side, the initial cost of investment is usually fairly low.
Though consoles have had higher price points this generation (which
is why $600 PS3 could not move units), most of them hover around the
$250 price point. This is because console manufacturers, with the
exception of Nintendo, do not make money on the initial sale. In
fact, each sale results in a slight loss for the company. They rely
on the sales of game software (and Blu-Ray movies in Sony's case) to
make up for the initial losses and eventually profit. In contrast,
PCs tend to have a much higher initial investment. Even lower end
gaming PCs take an initial investment of around $500 dollars
nowadays. Higher end gaming PCs will be very costly. The consumer
will likely be shelling out $1000 or more in order to play top of the
line games. It makes sense. Unlike gaming consoles where the company
has a reasonable idea of what the end user plans to do with it, PCs
have a significantly higher degree of uncertainty. Because of this,
PC manufacurers and distributors of their parts need to make a profit
through the initial sale and they do not have propritary formats to
liscense out for money (any PC will generally run any program from
any CD/DVD if it has the power to do so). Naturally, this will drive
up prices for the hardware and give consoles the advantage on that
front.

The
next thing to go over is the cost of games for the hardware. Most
console gamers are aware of the ever-prevalant $60 price tag on most
major console releases. As many of them are also aware, that cost
tends to be quite prohibitive. It is simply not feasible, espcially
in this economy, for a consumer to purchase all the games he/she
wants. Even after a few years, prices rarely drop to a significant
enough degree. There is the downloadable market which offers a more
flexible pricing system, but by and large most games are subject to
the $60 retail price. This is not the case for the PC. Most PC games
are purchased from services like Steam
and Good
Old Games.
Retail is by and large irrelevant for PC gamers. While AAA games
still tend to release for $60, they are infinitely more suceptible to
the market and tend to get marked down and put on sale and a higher
frequency. A semi-patient PC gamers will always be able to buy games
for a more reasonable price than a console gamer with the same level
of patience. And even people who are not into PC games are aware of
the massive sales that Steam throws semi-regularly. There is also the
indie scene to make note of which is more prelavent on the PC,
allowing for more variety in games at a lower coist. All this
combined gives PC gamers a clear advantage when it comes to
purchasing gaming software for their chosen device.

But
purchasing a system and getting games for it are one thing. It is an
entirely separate matter when it comes to making the games work on
the player's system. This is a trivial matter for the consoles. Since
every Playstation 3/Xbox 360 has the same system specs as any other
system, game developers can be reasonably assured as to what the end
user for their games will have and can program the games and their
development tools with that in mind. The results in nearly the exact
same performance on every console. Players will not have to fuss over
system settings and compatability. Any PS3 game will work on any PS3,
for example (unless it's buggy,
in which case every PS3, on average, will encounter the same amount
of bugs/glitches). This is not necessarily the case with PC games.
Unlike consoles, every PC will have different specs from other PCs.
The developers of these games have no idea what the end user will be
capable of playing. This means that they have to release minimum
specs required to play the game and ideal specs to get the most out
of game, shifting the responsibility of compatability from the
developers to the players. It is the player's job to make sure that
he/she has a rig capable of playing the game. It also means that PC
games have the tendency to be more fussy than their console
counterparts. This makes it necessary for users to go through
settings and the occasion forum post if the game is not working.
While developers are usually available for support (it affects their
bottom dollar if you cannot play a game), the fans are ultimately the
ones who are responsible for keeping their systems up to date and
getting the game to function, giving consoles a clear advantage here.

Another crucial topic in a discussion like this is the control
scheme behind each system. This in and of itself is a major topic of
debate among gamers: The question of the console controller versus
the keyboard and mouse. The controller is obviously a more accessable
form of play for the common gamer. It is very easy to pick up a
controller and play the desired game. There is also much to be said
for continuity of controls between games. Games tend to have similar
conventions regarding control schemes. While small adjustments
between games will be necessary, more often than not games in the
same genre will have very similar controls. Unfortunately, the
simplicity can also become a downside. Certain genres simply cannot
work with a controller. While controllers are much better for things
like racing games, they make other genres like Real-Time Strategy
nearly unplayable due the number of inputs and the degree on
precision required. On the keyboard and mouse side of things, we have
a different case. The KB&M style of control is very precise.
Depending on mouse sensitivity, (which can usually be adjusted) it is
much easier to make smaller and more accurate movements with a mouse
than with a thumbstick. Furthermore, the keyboard and mouse is more
malliable than a controller. It can used in a number of different
ways simply because there are more keys and most PC games allow for
custom controls and a greater variety of control schemes (at least
more often than console games). This is both a blessing and a curse.
While KB&M allow for more precise and customized controls, they
do not have the pick up and play ability that controllers have. The
end user will more than likely spend some time adjusting his/her
controls and fine-tuning them while a controller user can spend more
time playing the game. Going back to the PC versus console debate,
PCs ultimately win out. Not because keyboard & mouse is
inherently better (It depends entirely on what the end user wants
from the control scheme), but because the PC has access to both
because 360 controllers are compatable with PCs and there exists
software to do the same with PS3 controllers. This means that
consoles are restricted to one of the two while PC gamers have access
to both.

And now to answer the ultimate question: Which is truly superior, PC
or console? The answer is an extremely solid “What is your
preference?” If you are a more technically minded gamer who is on
lastest of the cutting edge, then PC is the right choice for you. For
a more customized experience or one that offers a greater variety in
games, then PC is again the right choice for you. However, the
console is better for those who do not want to worry to much about
technical stuff and want to just dive into a game. Price also needs
to be a big consideration. PC is better for those who prefer to take
a big initial hit and then take advantage of discounts and lower
prices on the digital market while consoles have a lower barrier of
entry, but have more expensive games. That is ultimately why this
debate continues to rage on. People have different definitions of
what is “best” and thus judge it on different criteria. This is
what fuels all the various “best ever” fanboy arguments. It is
impotant for us to take this into consideration. If there is a game
or system you do not like, keep in mind that the odds are that other
people like it for different reasons.

4 comments:

SougoXIII
said...

For me, it always had been about the consoles - though I do wish to use the PC as well in the future. The main reason for me is that I have terrible experiences with troubleshooting stuffs on the PC and do not want to spend hours to make sure my games work. Another reason is the costs: A high end PC can easily cost around £1000 and if you compare it to my £250 console + all the games that I brought at full price, I still find the console to be a cheaper path.

Another thing to mention about the PC is DRM. I must confess that I'm not really familiar with them but I have heard horror stories about EA and Ubisoft. I know Steam is considered to be acceptable DRM wise but I prefer to be able to play I brought without hassle.

The only thing that tempt me about the PC is the mods. Particularly for Bethesda games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Its nice to have a community of people who's willing to provide new content and fix the developers' broken games.

I'll probably insult a lot of people but, pc is way better than console.Consoles are for people who don't have cash but want a fun game BUT doesn't have time to enjoy the graphics so they don't care about it, or the control... In any case, pc is better it has no limitations, modding whatever, the only way i would accept a console is if it had a MOUSE and a keyboard support to all of its games, and had graphics equal to pc, but it just never going to happen.